Without much ado, Wellman Creek has moved into our ninth year with organic landscape care. We’re using the same two landscape companies we’ve used the past couple years: one for basic landscape maintenance, and the other for organic weed control and fertilization.
Wondering why yellow flags are posted if our lawn care is organic? Or what other green practices we’ve put in place at Wellman Creek? Or how we got here and where we might go? Check out this post.
This past Monday, the Wellman Creek HOA board voted unanimously to stick with our current landscape-maintenance strategies. Grateful to report that the herbicide indaziflam will not be used in non-turf areas throughout the complex, as had been proposed. Wellman Creek is now headed into its eighth year with organic landscape maintenance.
We’ll continue using the same two companies we currently use. Our main landscape company, now moving into its second year with us, takes care of mowing, blowing, trimming, irrigation, and organic non-turf weed control. For organic fertilization and weed control on our lawns, we use a company that specializes in that, now headed into its fourth year with us.
Many thanks to board members who decided to continue following this path. It can be difficult to do things differently from how they’re typically done. But board members have listened to the scientific evidence and the personal experiences of residents and chosen safer options for our community.
The path to a workable organic program at Wellman Creek has been rocky—or, rather, weedy. For the first couple years, we used an organic landscape-maintenance company with knowledgeable ownership and a great vision. Unfortunately, they were unable to follow through (and are no longer in business). The next couple years, the conventional landscape company we were using at the time said they’d implement an organic program. However, they didn’t appear to do much to learn or to follow through either.
Three years ago, we started used the company that specializes in organic weed control and fertilization on lawns. Since then, the grass has been thicker, greener, and healthier. The landscape-maintenance company we started with a year ago has made improvements to the irrigation system, which has also helped keep the lawns greener.
Here are a few things you might want to know, especially if you’re looking at Wellman Creek as a place to live in the future:
The board has made other green decisions in the past as well:
For seven years and now into an eighth, ninety-eight households have had a safer place to live where we can enjoy the outdoors all year long. Our visitors and passers-by on the creek path, including local kindergartners and people with chemical sensitivities, are safer too (pesticides can present a barrier to accessibility for some people). Our food gardens are free of pesticide drift, at least from our own HOA. Our complex is more desirable to many potential buyers and renters. It’s a record to be proud of.
If you’re working for alternatives to pesticides in your Boulder-area HOA, you might want to join the Facebook group Green HOA Boulder County Colorado. We’re exchanging information, discussing strategies, and sharing our experiences with local service providers.
Wellman Creek has had organic landscape maintenance for seven years now—longer than most HOAs in Boulder County. Our grounds have been safe for kids, pets, and grown-ups to play and hang out on. We’ve even heard how desirable we are; several households decided to live here in part because we don’t routinely use conventional pesticides.
But an HOA board member is proposing that we consider use of a non-organic herbicide in 2019. The product’s active ingredient is indaziflam, a pre-emergent, meaning it prevents weeds from germinating. It would be applied in February or March to non-turf areas throughout the complex, such as rock beds, sidewalk cracks, and around landscaping plants. The product then remains active in the soil for months.
If you prefer we stick with organic strategies, see the end of this article for actions you can take between now and this Monday’s HOA board meeting. But first, a little info.
Let’s keep Wellman Creek a desirable haven for people who need to or choose to avoid pesticide exposure.
Some of you may have noticed the yellow pesticide-warning flags all over the complex today and wondered what the heck?! If you’re concerned about pesticides, don’t worry. Here’s the story.
The product applied today is OMRI-certified organic. But since it contains ingredients with herbicidal activity (clove oil and chelated iron), the company, Organo-Lawn, is legally required to post the yellow flags.
Organo-Lawn will apply one more product sometime this fall. That application may also involve yellow flags, since the corn gluten meal in it has herbicidal activity.
So sorry for the communication glitch. Since our main landscape company’s contract has not turned over to next year’s yet, it was a surprise to some of us to see Organo-Lawn here already. Even though the applications are organic, the board is looking into having notice posted ahead of time in the future. We may also want to post signs at the complex explaining why we’ll regularly be seeing yellow flags.
For more information about the product applied today, One Earth, click here. For more information about Synergy, the product to be applied later this season, click here. The plan we’ve signed up for with Organo-Lawn is its Ultimate One Earth Plan (not the Ultimate “Smarter” plan, which involves conventional herbicides). For more information, click here.
The HOA board decided this past week to try another year of organic landscape care, this time using a longtime local provider of organic lawn fertilization and weed control, Organo-Lawn. That company will work in conjunction with our current, conventional landscape-maintenance company, Brickman, which will continue to take care of tasks such as mowing, irrigation, and trimming. Part of the success of an organic program depends on how well watering and mowing are implemented, so we’ll be rooting for both companies!
The cost of the organic program will be higher than originally proposed. This is in part because the board decided to use the most intensive organic plan that Organo-Lawn offers. This should offer a quicker improvement to the lawns. As the soil and grass become more healthy in future years, we may need fewer treatments, which could decrease costs.
Organo-Lawn has specialized in doing organic lawn fertilization and weed control for about 18 years. We hope this experience will be helpful, and we’ve also heard some recent strong recommendations of the company and seen some thick, green grass that it cares for. If you’re familiar with the company, you’ll know that not all its programs are fully organic; however, Wellman Creek will be using a 100 percent organic plan.
Let’s hear it for healthy landscaping for another year!
Organo-Lawn services this City of Boulder lawn in front of the courthouse on the Pearl Street Mall, using the same plan that will be used at Wellman Creek. Results may vary, and organic care takes time to work, but this looks promising.
Will we stay organic at Wellman Creek this next year? Can we do so effectively and affordably? It looks like there’s a win-win-win solution that’s
A longtime organic lawn-care company has given Wellman Creek an estimate for organic fertilization and weed control. The company seems up-to-date with organic strategies, and it appears to have developed sophisticated products that are working. In fact, it sounds like the company may have found the Holy Grail of organic lawn care—a product that kills weeds and not grass.
A tour of lawns this company cares for turns up grass that’s nice looking–thick, tall, and green. Weeds tend not to stand out visually because of the healthy-looking grass.
The extra cost? Probably in the $2 per household per month range. A lot cheaper than cancer or infertility or Parkinson’s. 🙂
If we remain organic,
Using this new company for fertilization and weed control, in combination with our existing landscape company, looks to be a win-win-win solution. People who don’t want to be exposed to pesticides aren’t. The price is right. We get experienced organic lawn care. Everybody’s happy! Would you be? Read on and let the board know … today!
This month’s HOA meeting is tonight, Tuesday, September 1, starting at 6 p.m. Neighbors can comment at the beginning of the meeting for three minutes each. You can also email the board in care of our property manager, Holly Dennis, at hdennis@msihoa.com. Please copy greenwellmancreek@gmail.com.
The Wellman Creek HOA board meets at Crestview Church, behind our complex on the other side of the creek, 3665 Madison Ave. The meeting is actually in a small house next to the church. If you’re facing the church with your back to Madison Ave., the house is to the left of the church, connected to the church by a sidewalk. We have recently switched our meeting time to the first Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. And we’re in a different room than we were in previously. The current room is in the front of the house, facing the street.
This Tuesday, September 1, the Wellman Creek HOA board will be choosing our landscape company for the next year. Bids include two for conventional care, which would include regular pesticide use, and one for organic care. Questions remain about the cost of the organic program. Stay tuned here for details as things develop!
The meeting starts at 6 p.m., and residents can comment at the beginning of the meeting. You can also email the board in care of our property manager, Holly Dennis, at hdennis@msihoa.com. You can also copy or email greenwellmancreek@gmail.com.
The Wellman Creek HOA board meets at Crestview Church, behind our complex on the other side of the creek, 3665 Madison Ave. The meeting is actually in a small house next to the church. If you’re facing the church with your back to Madison Ave., the house is to the left of the church, connected to the church by a sidewalk. Neighbors can comment for up to three minutes each at the beginning of the meeting. We have recently switched our meeting time to the first Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. And we’re in a different room than we were in previously. The current room is in the front of the house, facing the street.
A brief update for now; look for more here soon. The decision by the Wellman Creek HOA board last night, in a 4-1 vote, was to use a hybrid fertilizer this year–a combination of organic components and urea–and to apply a combination of 2,4-D and two other herbicides in early to mid-October.
The sudden decision has awakened a lot of energy around this issue at Wellman Creek. We welcome your involvement.
Herbicide use on the lawns at Wellman Creek is back on the table, as of yesterday. At least one board member and perhaps more would like to see us spray for dandelions and other weeds as early as this spring. The herbicide used here in the most recent past has been 2,4-D, in case you want to look it up. Sometimes combinations of three herbicides are used. A decision will likely be made tomorrow/Tuesday at our next HOA board meeting, which starts at 6 p.m.
If you prefer that we stay pesticide-free, now is the time to make your voice heard. Here’s how:
Some history:
Why stay organic?
Thanks for making your views known!
The Wellman Creek HOA board meets at Crestview Church, behind our complex on the other side of the creek, 3665 Madison Ave. The meeting is actually in a small house next to the church. If you’re facing the church with your back to Madison Ave., the house is to the left of the church, connected to the church by a sidewalk. People can comment at the beginning of the meeting. We have recently switched our meeting time to the first Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m.
We’re going organic again this year! Last fall, the Wellman Creek HOA board decided not to continue with the organic landscape-maintenance company we had been using. Instead, the board voted to hire a large, conventional landscape company that our property manager has worked with.
But the HOA board asked the company we hired to get us a bid for the additional cost of implementing an organic program. And at this week’s meeting, the board voted unanimously to go with the organic bid, trying out organic for at least another year.
The representative of the landscape company rightly emphasized that continuing with organic is a long-term process. No organic substitutes exist to replace the conventional herbicides typically used in lawns. It takes time—years—to build soil fertility and a healthy lawn that crowds out weeds.
But with more and more organizations warning of the health risks of pesticides—from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the President’s Cancer Panel—it seems less and less OK to expose people to pesticides, especially when so many Wellman Creek residents don’t wish to be exposed. Kudos to board members for taking an ethical stance!
P.S. We’re looking for a new HOA board member, since one of our members is moving away. And we’ve decided to go with tree replacement over a period of time—instead of pesticides—as a solution to the appearance of emerald ash borer in Boulder. More on both of these later!
Green Wellman Creek 